I was never a huge Meat Loaf fan but, like Frampton Comes Alive”, the “Bat Out of Hell” album was owned by everyone when it was released and my wife loves the “Bat Out of Hell” album to this day. I saw Meat Loaf in his “prime” when the stage show supposedly included the big man doing somersaults. Unfortunately Meat Loaf had broke his leg prior to the concert at St. John’s University resulting in him singing from a wheelchair until the end of the show when he heroically pulled himself out of the chair and staggered across the stage like a latter day Frankenstein monster.

The old rockers are fading fast and like when Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack suddenly got old, you go to shows like this one as much for the nostalgia as the music.

Long story short, I was expecting awful but was entertained.

Our spot on floor was three rows back to the left and I could have tapped the $189 customers on the shoulder. $189 a seat for a pretty washed up Meat Loaf? Ticket prices have hit a new crisis point but he managed to play two nights at The Paramount at those inflated prices although there were some unsold seats on the floor on the night we went.

We had a perfect view of the band and the girl who is Meat Loaf’s foil during the iconic “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”. She covered his vocal shortcomings capably but is not getting paid enough for the creepy make out session with Mr. Loaf and deserves hazard pay. He’s a mess who is limping through the act wearing what looks like a black spangled blouse and orthotic Herman Munster shoes. The gals in the audience got to sing along to “Paradise” and “Two Out of Three (Ain’t Bad) so it was mixed bag but mostly enjoyable evening.

The band was tight and we found ourselves rooting for Meat Loaf as he is clearly not up to touring anymore. It was long ago and it was far away when Meat Loaf could hit those notes as his voice is shot.This was like watching a heavyweight fight where the former champion refuses to go down for the count; a punch drunk Bayonne Bomber hanging on for dear life.

I won’t ever see Meat Loaf perform again but in the end it was a pleasant diversion where the audience laughed and almost cried as the ravages of time were personified by the once, almost great, Marvin Lee Aday AKA Meat Loaf who would do anything for love.

Life is a Lemon (and I Want my Money Back)

Rock on 

GQ

Mixed bag

The word on the street is that Meat Loaf’s voice is shot.

Let’s see just how creepy “Paradise” can be!

Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad?

Rock on!

GQ

i unwrapped my Crazy Horse “Scratchy” CD, placed it in my car CD player and headed to the Farmingdale Multiplex to watch the double bill “Human Highway” and the legendary “Rust Never Sleeps” originally shown in “Rust O Vision”.complete with Rust O Vision glasses!

Neil Young continues to innovate while morphing between past and present.

Mr. Young recently released a live Blue Notes CD and picks up his touring schedule with The Promise of the Real this Spring and Summer with a few U.S. dates and then a European tour. Neil’s U.S. Tour last year in support of The Monsanto Years was one of his best ever. 

It’s almost showtime!

Seats are still available for this one night event.

Don’t Spook the Horse

Rock on

GQ

Fresh after seeing a surprisingly  rejuvenated Black Sabbath at Madison Square Garden last night, I head to The Space in Westbury to catch the legendary B52s tonight. I have never been to the renovated movie theatre that is The Space before tonight so I look forward to checking out yet another new venue in the ever expanding New York area concert scene.

I last caught Kate Pierson at City Winery in New York promoting a solo project. Kate is an obviously cool chick who currently resides in the vicinity of the equally cool Woodstock, New York. The B52s have kept the party alive with periodic shows in the area and tonight should be fun as always.

Good Stuff

Rock on!

GQ

i was looking forward to the HBO series Vinyl produced by Martin Scorcese and Mick Jagger loosely based on the early 1970’s rock and roll scene and the business behind it. 

Ian Dury and the Blockheads said

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Is all my brain on body need.

This would seem to be the perfect formula for a mini series but unfortunately in theory only for this fiasco.

Maybe I’m out of touch. I just read Rolling Stone magazine articles about Vinyl and the movie “Hail Caesar” and they would have you think that both were some kind of revelatory must see projects but I found both to be awful and close to unwatchable messes.

I forced myself to go back to the first episode of Vinyl after falling asleep shortly after the fake Robert Plant character made an appearance on my television screen and “Led Zeppelin-like”  music was played as the famous producers apparently did not get the rights to the actual Zep catalog (I guess the Slade catalog came a lot cheaper as their music was sprinkled throughout episode number one).

The almost two hour first episode was torturous, and despite some gratuitous nudity and a murder thrown in the story line to propel the series forward, I was bored to tears praying for the episode to finally end.

The initial buzz I’m hearing from people I know is that no one is digging this series but the HBO machine will try to make this a “hit” despite the low budget feel to this obviously high priced production.

I will not watch any more of this; it made me angry that I wasted two hours of my life watching this bad 70’s retro not quite bio pic.

Rock is Dead?

Rent Detroit Rock City

And RoCK on!!

GQ

Wilco is one of my favorite bands and I have never been to the Kings Theatre located in Brooklyn so I am looking forward to getting out of the snow and rocking out with Jeff Tweedy and the band tonight.

I have not heard the new Wilco recording “Star Wars’ but it has been getting good reviews. The Bill Frisell Trio opens the show at 8 PM.

I like that Wilco switches up the venues each time they come to town making every tour a unique experience.

Tickets for Mumford and Sons’ two night stint at Forest Hills Stadium in June went on sale yesterday on Tickerfly.

General on sale for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Friday, April 8 go on sale today at 9 AM.

If you have not gone to a sporting event at Madison Square Garden since the renovation was completed I urge you to do so. I went to see the Knicks play the Boston Celtics on Tuesday and it was a phenomenal experience; there does not appear to be a bad seat in the house for basketball and I would assume for Ranger hockey also.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Rock on!

GQ

I had read a review of the band U2’s new album “October” in Esquier magazine and it intrigued me enough to buy it unheard. The U2 sound was different than anything else on my radar screen at that time so when the band played The Ritz club on Saint Patrick Day in 1982 my friends and I ventured into the festive NYC night for the show.

I happened upon the set list for that show on the U2 website.

Gloria

Another Time, Another Place

I Threw a Brick Through a Window

A Day Without Me

An Cat Dubh

Into the Heart

Rejoice

The Cry

The Electric Co./ Send in the Clowns

I Fell Down

October

Tomorrow

I Will Follow

Twilight

Out of Control

ENCORES

Fire

11 O’Clock Tick Tock/ Give Peace a Chance

The Ocean

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Rock on

GQ

And Then There Was One

Rock on

GQ

Guitarist Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane and the Jefferson Starship has died at the age of 74. Mr. Kantner was touring with the latest incarnation of the Jefferson Starship right up until recently and last played in the New York area at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury and B.B. King’s in New York City. I was supposed to go to the Westbury gig but had accidentally triple booked myself that night and ended up seeing the Gregg Allman Band at City Winery.

I have seen the Jefferson Starship back in the 70’s when Grace Slick led the vocals and more recently at The Paramount a couple of years ago when the 70 plus year old Kantner rocked out in his psychedelic spandex pants with Cathy Richardson doing her own best take on the Jefferson Airplane classics.

Paul Kantner may not be a household word or the first person that many would think of regarding the Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship but he was the undeniable musical and inspirational leader of the groups that performed and recorded for decades since the 1960’s.

The old rockers are passing away at an increasingly alarming and sobering rate. The local oldies station no longer plays the hits from the 50’s or eve 60’s bot now play Fleetwood Mac and The Romantics.

Joe Cocker, Ben Keith, Bobby Keys, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Clarence Clemens, Paul Kantner and the list goes on and on.

God gave Rock and Roll to you……..

Long Live Rock

GQ

i’m listening to “The River” tour concert recorded on 01/19/2016 in Chicago on Sirius satellite radio prior to heading to New York City for the now first of two shows (thanks to the Blizzard of 2016) at Madison Square Garden.

I do find it odd that Bruce would sing a Jackson Browne tune in honor of the recently departed Glenn Frey but in any event it’s a nice rendition of “Take It Easy”.

“The River” has always been my favorite Springsteen album, as there is so much great music on this classic double album recently blown up to a massive box set, so I am looking forward to seeing the band in an arena setting for this somewhat brief tour.

Born to Run

GQ